By Gordon Berry

THE MOTHER of a Fife girl who died when she was a passenger in a car driven by a speeding drink driver has spoken of the family’s loss in the wake of a High Court case which saw the 24-year-old driver jailed for 40 months.

Yesterday Susan Anderson, of Crail, said that her daughter Louise, who was only 21 at the time of the accident in 2006, was one of these people “who knew that drinking and driving did not mix.”

Last week 24-year-old Andrew Esslemont, who had known Louise for only a short time before the night he lost control of his car on a wet road while under the influence of alcohol, appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The accident saw his car hit a wall and tree before it ended up on the lawn of a house at Ellon in Aberdeenshire, and he admitted afterwards that he had drunk about five bottles of beer.

Mrs Anderson yesterday said that she would never understand why Louise got in the car, but she had taken the chance and did it.

“If she was was drinking the car stayed at home, which it did on that night.

“I didn’t know Andrew at all, but like many people he took a chance.

“The chance he probably thought he was taking was ‘I’ve only had a few drinks, I won’t get caught.’ The reality was much worse.

“Is the sentence too short? Probably in some people’s eyes. He may have lost a few years of ‘free’ life, but we lost much more,” said Mrs Anderson.

Louise, who was educated at Waid Academy in Anstruther, went to Aberdeen to be with her friend Hailey Howorth, who is also from the East Neuk and had gone to work in the city after graduating from university.

A car enthusiast, Louise wanted to become a model, and had entered competitions and posed for professional photographs. She had spent a short time at college after school, and had then gone to work for a supermarket firm.

Mrs Anderson said her photograph appeared in the car magazine Max Power and she had taken part in a photoshoot for a university.